Recovery Reckoning
Introduction
How many clinicians have seen their clients’ most private and intimate parts? How many clinicians regularly see their clients’ literal private parts (e.g., junk)? How many clinicians, probation officers, and staff are legally required to do this as a critical aspect of their jobs? Who legally requires this? And who has to ignore their morals to be ethical? Who, without reading what the fine print implies, has to wave their rights to let these professions do this? Who has to click “yes” to these terms and conditions just to receive “lifesaving treatment” from an industry who has basically repackaged mindfulness (O’Brien, 2023b), self-help (HERE), and religion (HERE; HERE; HERE)? To say the least, those in recovery are more than hesitant to buy or believe that what they selling us as healthcare, particularly when the help we needed did not come from industrialized systems of psychology, law, or government.
As the new/old profession of Healer becomes established (O’Brien, 2024a), we need to look to the recovery models of Self-Help to explain why treatments, professional services, and psychology has not been able to achieve what Self-Help has: an actual solution to the addiction condition, if we have accurately and operationally defined addiction as dissociation (O’Brien, 2023a). What Self-Help has achieved is a standard of morality and since the federal and state governments have made Recovery a profession, we see a path forward in uniting people in recovery as healers.
In this chapter, we are addressing the inhumane nature of the professional dynamic that caused multiple crimes against humanity. For example, making psychedelics illegal, selling medications for a chemical imbalance, selling non-addictive opiates, and policing mental health. We will also be addressing the human rights issue that is still waging a “war on drugs”, made psychedelics illegal and denied research, imprisoned people disproportionately for common foods and for a “disease”, psychiatry’s approval of “chemical imbalance” theory of mental health, the medical model for promoting an experimental safe-vaccine-flu-shot to children who showed no risk, and the system of law that removed religious exemption for medical or public safety issues that were caused by the other industries incompetence, by legacy professionals, and immoral human beings (HERE; HERE). These attributes speak to the true nature of power and control, and as our stance that professions and professionals who have undiagnosed and untreated perfection, altruism, and ambition addictions are what need to enter into a program of recovery. We recommend that they do it the same way every other addict had to: forced, against their will, and at their own expense; and yes, psychedelics can be required, mandated, and punishable if not taken. However, psychedelics not recommended for everyone and cannot only be taken one everyone is unconsciously agreeable to do so and consciously knows the cost of letting go of what they believe is ailing them now; but is really what created them then.
Orientation
The authority of any governing body is to not impose itself on the individual lives of their citizens. Psychologically, we have major concerns about the field of psychology’s involvement in social and private matters of their citizens, particularly around diagnosing and medicating citizens. When psychology say that they are “addressing”, “treating”, “diagnosing”, or whatever they are selling psychology as a science (O’Brien, 2024c), they are committing fraud with respect to implying that something is diagnosable and broken because it needs “fixing”. Because psychiatry has not produced the full range of mental health disorders (O’Brien, 2023a), the law should be skeptical of their influence, but similarly, psychology should be cautious about involving itself in the law for the same professional mental health reasons. Not only did self-help address the addiction issue, they also addressed the enabling system with Ala-non. But just like addiction, that pathology does not make sense to the rational being that says that our emotional math does not add up (1+1=3)(O’Brien, 2024c; HERE).
The implicit conflict in any body of authority is that by accepting our operational defining of addiction is that it is the potency of the drug that is the cause of the disorder, not the drug use. Drug use does not equal addiction, but because drug use is traumatic and trauma is an event not a disease or a disorder, then psychology has some explaining to do. The disorder is in not being able to heal properly in a society that is causing more trauma on its’ citizens by the industrialization of professions who are imposing themselves in their lives, personal choices, technology, and individual freedoms (HERE). As citizen sell their information to these companies for access to the worldwide web, the trap in the cage has been set.
Reorientation
Trauma is dissociation and dissociation is addictive and addiction is not a disease (O’Brien, 2023a). Addiction is trauma-related dissociation, which is brought about by the fact that more powerful drugs impact the body and memory system more than what has historically been available. The industrialization and scientification of drugs are the trauma to the body and this observation is devoid of reference to any specific kind of drugs or rationalization because the body is the unconscious.
As the body is expressing symptoms of dysregulation, stress (that can trigger dormant illnesses stored in the genome), and dissociation (protects from triggering unexpressed biology), then mental health is more related to stress and dissociation than anything else (O’Brien, 2023a). Dissociation has recently been identified as transdiagnostic and we have concluded that addiction is as well (O’Brien, 2023a). And since the memory system is the body and memories become a part of us (O’Brien, 2023a), the physical body is the psychological unconscious (O’Brien, 2024c; HERE) and any violation or removal of personal freedoms to choose what one wants to do with their body, is deemed morally illegal and unethical and cannot be legal and is punishable intergenerationally.
Now that psychedelic drugs are becoming legal, we have to remember who made them illegal, who said they have no medical value, they ignored psychological value, and identify who was actually looking out for us citizens (e.g., weatherman and bands like the Grateful Dead). We would argue that AA and the Acid Tests of the 1960’s were examples of people trying to hold space for people who the system has failed. Don’t get us wrong, the system was designed to be imperfect and that is why we need reform, constitutional convention to protect children and citizen right to choose, but the reason why citizens had to create them (AA or a safe environment take acid when it was legal) the way they did is because the system didn’t.
Recovery is the only profession that can bring the spiritual and moral reckoning to the federal and states governments that created more atrocities by not ending the forever wars on drugs sooner when science is clear as to what and who is sicker than their citizens. Our follow up question is how that war could have ever been legal in a country where people risked their lives to declare independence from such ignorant forces of evil. The opportunity for a National Convention to reframe the Constitution still exists, correct?” The Bill of Rights are still at play, right? Do we have taxation with representation?
Solution
New York State (NYS) Department of Education (DOE) recently released a “protocol to reduce implicit bias in decision making.” We are wondering if they could apply this protocol and apply their evidence based practices to current drug laws, systems of banking, Big Pharm, business models, politics, psychology, medical model, climate change (HERE), and social and economic disparity. We would also request that they acknowledge their role in continuing an unnecessary war on drugs and make retribution for deflecting their drug issues onto the citizenry. Furthermore, NYS DOE has a moral character clause in every single of their professional licensure renewal (HERE). What this requires is that licensed professionals click that they are in good standing with laws. Ironically, codes of ethics requires that people advocate against social injustice, but does that also apply to lawyers and politicians who write the laws?
Conclusions
We see an opportunity for “the powers that be” to make what was wrong right is now upon them, but really one the individuals who sold the soul of citizen and is still in debt to their abusive parents, just so they could have a secure retirement and a good death. What they may not know what happens when they die. Those who have been there and come back do. This is the difference between a healer in recovery and professional who only recites what they can quote or remember. Qualitative science adds emotional logic to the conversation and so we argued what we have argued to try and prevent missing such an obvious answers as drug PTSD and dissociation to the categorization of addiction because that is what science is supposed to do. Report your findings and get out of the way. We can only assume that humility and humanity will bring them to their senses, which they label as a spiritual awakening. We know it will. We have been there. But as the song is done and we are waiting for them to sing, we have to wonder what song they will sing. A song of their own or the same old tune that everyone loves to hear?
References
O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024b). Diagnostic Privilege: Meta-Critical Analysis. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 2. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024c). Meta-Critical Analysis: The “Science” of Pseudoscience. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and the healing profession as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Appendix 3. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2024d). Moral-Ethics. In Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Chapter 14. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
